Justina Wamae: Why Youth Are To Blame For Delayed Raila-Ruto Truce

Former Roots Party running mate Justina Wamae on Saturday, April 8 accused the youth wings in both the Azimio la Umoja and Kenya Kwanza factions for allowing the demonstrations to take place before they were called off to allow for bipartisan talks between Azimio leader Raila Odinga and President William Ruto.

Speaking during an interview with Esther Nyonje, Wamae dressed down the youth for allowing egos on both sides to take charge of their agendas instead of speaking out against them, possibly averting the demonstrations that led to the destruction of property and bringing the economy to a halt.

She believed that the youth, representing the majority of the country's population, would have advised their leaders against taking hardline stances against each other and told them the truth about the situation affecting them as a whole instead of praising their work, even if it was evident that their actions were endangering the country.

"When they are doing the truce, it was something that would have been done without property destruction, without death, without everything and the economy going down...it's an issue of egos. I blame the young guys in Kenya Kwanza and Azimio.

"You're allowing your leaders who are elderly to push our agenda, remember Kenya is 19.1 years average. The young guys in those two parties would be telling their leaders that the younger generation who don't relate to the two leaders, they are the ones who are failing and telling their bosses they are doing the best thing, no! Tell them the truth that the population in Kenya are not happy and they don't relate to maandamano, they don't know whether you fought for Saba Saba or not," she fired.

Wamae further criticised the timing of the bipartisan talks, stating that they should have begun from the onset as both Raila and Ruto's parties had elected Members of Parliament (MPs) on their tickets who would have tabled bills aiming to address among other issues the high cost of living.

She accused the MPs of procrastination in their mandate as lawmakers and allowing both Raila and Ruto to oppose each other to the point of the former demanding his supporters to take to the streets to compel the latter to address the high cost of living, which saw their dire woes go from bad to worse in nearly three weeks.

"The truce is something that would have been done from the word go. They'd have gone to Parliament, put Bills there to tell us what they want to do.

"But because one wants to see that Kenya is at a standstill and the other one has refused because he is now the elected one. I want to tell the two leaders, we have suffered, are you happy?" she posed.

Regarding the constitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Wamae recommended for the process of selecting the IEBC commissioners be all-inclusive as the politicians heavily immersed in the process were elected by the will of the people.

According to her, the process ought to begin with the religious leaders who would seek the opinions of the congregants regarding the selection process for the IEBC commissioners and move on to traders, farmers among other stakeholders so that Kenyans' voices can be accommodated.

"The selection must change, how are Kenyans going to be involved? Because now politicians are taking centre stage forgetting that they are there because of Kenyans' votes. I think we should be pushing for a different conversation on how these commissioners will be selected.

"One the church, most Kenyans go to church, so the pastor on the ground will ask people what they think about the election at the IEBC, that will be the voice of the common mwananchi as well as the Muslims and civil society. The table should be widened apart from political parties and politicians, they would have said traders, unionists and farmers with their own cooperatives so that their voices are heard," she went on.

Wamae further believed that the time was right for ending the days of politicians driving the process of selecting the next batch of commissioners at the electoral commission, referring in part to the infamous Cherera Four who had affiliations with the Azimio coalition.

"In my opinion, we need to move away from politicians driving this process because at the end of it all when you see Cherera you say she's from Azimio and the other is from Kenya Kwanza, so where is the interest of the Kenyans?" she posed.

Justina Wamae during an interview on April 8, 2023. /YOUTUBE.ESTHER NYONJE